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Global Leprosy Status in 2020: Still Losing Touch

2020; Academy of Medicine, Singapore; Volume: 49; Issue: 1 Linguagem: Inglês

10.47102/annals-acadmedsg.2019252

0304-4602

Carlos Franco‐Paredes, Griselda Montes de Oca Sánchez, Cassandra White,

Tuberculosis Research and Epidemiology

Leprosy, also known as Hansen's Disease, is one of the oldest diseases that has afflicted humanity.It has been described in ancient Egyptian and Indian texts dating 600 BCE. 1 Additionally, the molecular fingerprint of Mycobacterium leprae-the major aetiologic agent of leprosy-has been identified in bioarchaeological records. 1,2ecent comparative genomic and phylogeographic analysis of Mycobacterium leprae has linked its molecular epidemiology to social historical events, suggesting that the global spread of leprosy is associated with migration of humans. 2 For example, leprosy arrived to the Americas with West African populations entering the New World via the transatlantic slave trade.Subsequent waves of European migration into the Americas were responsible for later introductions of Mycobacterium leprae. 2 In Europe, improvements in social conditions in the second half of the 16 th Century led to a substantial reduction of leprosy as genomic comparisons of ancient and modern strains of Mycobacterium leprae demonstrate remarkable similarity. 2 Today, the clustering of cases of leprosy mainly occurs among individuals living in resource-poor settings with favourable ecological niches for Mycobacterium leprae to thrive. 3n 1954, the French philanthropist, Raoul Follereau, established World Leprosy Day to be observed on the last Sunday of January. 4 In India, World Leprosy Day is observed on 30 January-coinciding with the anniversary of Mahatma Gandhi's death on the same day in 1948-in acknowledgement of Gandhi's efforts to destigmatise the disease and improve the lives of people living with it.4 Since its inception, the focus of World Leprosy Day has been on the promotion of activities to raise awareness of the disease and to reduce stigma, discrimination and the resulting social isolation.4 Despite these and other efforts to reduce the burden of leprosy, it remains a much neglected infectious disease among marginalised populations.5,6 By 1985, the global prevalence of leprosy was 5.2 million cases (identified in 122 countries).As a result and with the advent of multidrug therapy (MDT) to treat leprosy, the